‘I bear a head beside a stake/ the head of Urien, a dragon-like lord/ and although Doomsday come, it is not important to me [beside the death of Urien]’.

Professor Jenny Rowlands wrote to me with details on this strophe:

"Information on this can be found in Early Welsh Saga Poetry, 557. Since it's not readily available I'll summarize. The verse comes from NLW 4973, an early modern ms. of John Davies, Mallwyd. It includes two copies of the englynion. One is a copy of the Red Book of Hergest, the other an independent copy of part of the englynion which was not noticed before I checked it. This is closer to the White Book copies, but has independent readings. Corrections and marginalia were added to the RB copy from this earlier copy, and that is probably the source for the Myvyrian verse. Since Ifor Williams did not have a reliable source it was put in the notes. O du means 'from around, beside', so probably not on a stake."

Dragonol can be translated as Dr. Rodway renders it, although more metaphorical meanings are offered by the GPC:

What we have in 'udd dragonawl', then, is an honorific very much like Pendragon. The strophe in question is also interesting in that the head of a dragon-like lord on a pole is eerily reminiscent of the dragon-head carried by Uther in Geoffrey of Monmouth's HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIAE.

I've not been able to find Welsh uthr or aruthr being applied to Urien. However, there is the epithet 'oruchel wledig' for Urien (see http://testunau.org/testunau/taliesin/llt57_urien_vrechwydd.htm). The GPC has aruchel as meaning "(very) high, tall, lofty, elevated; exalted, supreme, splendid, majestic; lofty (of language, style, feeling, &c.), sublime, noble." According to John Koch, "uthr means ‘awful’ or ‘awesome’, originally something ‘high, lofty’; cf. Old Irish úachtar ‘height’ < Celtic *ouctro-, Modern Irish meanings include ‘cream’ (note also uachtarán ‘president’)." With uchel being Welsh for 'high, tall', etc., it may be that Uthr as a name should be seen as a rough equivalent of aruchel.